1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to timing circuits, oscillators, and communication apparatus using oscillators, and more particularly to a time base circuit that establishes a time period in terms of the time taken to charge a capacitor to a particular voltage.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The principle of creating a time base using a determined current to charge a capacitor is in itself well known in the art. Such time bases are often implemented with current, supply voltage, and temperature stabilizing circuitry to ensure uniform characteristics over a range of operating conditions.
However, those of the prior art time bases that feature good accuracy tend to implement complex stabilizing circuitry—taking up a relatively large amount of chip space—and are relatively slow to start up.
Therefore a need exists to overcome the problems discussed above.